This House Is A Home
by laurelsalexis
Summary: For all the happiness she felt, holding the little girl in her arms broke her heart.


**A/N:** A little drabble, because this has been stuck in my head all day. Batfleck because he x Laurel are my weakness, thanks to a few gifsets on tumblr.

* * *

Laurel sat in the rocking chair, slowly moving back and forth. She was quiet. So was the little girl in her arms, the very one who had her tiny hand holding a firm grasp on the collar of her black shirt. She hadn't changed since she came in from her night out in Gotham, working to right the wrongs of the city.

Gotham quickly became home to her after she met Bruce. Oliver, Thea, Diggle, and Felicity were able to handle Starling City. The distance between her and her father proved to do them good. The relationship she once shared with her father would never find it's way back to them. Something Bruce helped her to accept.

Bruce helped her in ways she never could quite thank him for.

Her life was now in Gotham. She found a new job, fighting the corruption within the city, being one of the few prosecuting attorneys who never had a hidden agenda, nor could ever be bought off. It thrust her back into the limelight. Her name and picture once against gracing the screen of news and silly entertainment channels. Reminded her time with Oliver and Tommy.

Only her relationship with Oliver was destroyed the minute he found himself in bed with another, and Tommy died. She loved him, but he was dead, she spiraled into an addiction, and it took her far too long until she found a happy place within her life.

She never thought it'd be with Bruce Wayne of all men, but she loved him. She loved him, and they managed to make it work. Maybe being with Batman was not the best idea, but she was the Black Canary, and nothing was ever going to change that.

For all the happiness she felt holding the little girl in her arms broke her heart. A little girl orphaned because of the darkness that plagued the city. A little girl who would have her parents if she was only a couple of minutes sooner. A little girl who clearly missed the comforting arms of her mother, and instead had to settle for clinging to Laurel.

An hour passed since she walked through the door and sat there, holding her. If only she could right the wrongs done to the sleeping angel. All she could do was try and find who did this to her parents. If only so when she grew up she lived in a world where the ones who tore her parents away would be locked away, instead of roaming the streets.

"You're so strong." Laurel whispered, patting her back gently. "Stronger than I was. I did not take my losses as well as you have. The world is harsh, but you'll be okay."

In her talking she didn't hear the way Bruce came to stand in the doorway, or the way he was looking at the both of them with the faintest smile, that to anyone who didn't know him would argue didn't even exist.

"You're going to grow up and do Gotham proud, I know it." Her voice had dropped off to something almost inaudible, placing a kiss on her forehead, but not moving. She refused to move. "You can be anything you want to be. A doctor, lawyer, teacher, vigilante, but shh, I'm not going to give you any ideas." Just because Laurel was knocked down at every turn doesn't mean that others had to be.

If she moved something bad might happen. Ridiculous. There were so few that could get through those walls, and certainly not past her. But she had developed an attachment she never should have. Laurel wanted to savor the moments where she still was able to hold her in her arms and pretend that everything was fine.

"You want to keep her, don't you?" Bruce's voice questioned.

Laurel looked up, a soft smile given to him, only for a passing moment before she looked down again. It really wasn't about what she wanted. She wanted this little girl to have her parents, her family, to grow up in a loving home that was all her own.

She deserved to have the parents Bruce never had, to have better ones than Laurel had.

"No," a lie, one she was certain he would see right through.

While she loved Bruce, the two hadn't been together very long. Not as long as two people should be together to make such decisions, to make sure that they were able to handle something. With their lives it would only bring more stress to them, more changes she wasn't sure they could handle. The men in her life never had been exactly stable.

Oliver cheated on her multiple times, her father had tendencies to spew hateful things, Tommy died, Malcolm killed her sister. It felt as if she could go on forever.

She simply couldn't ask that of him.

"A few years ago there was this little boy. His parents were killed, and I watched over him until his extended family could be found." As Laurel spoke the infant fussed in her arms, before finding comfort, nodding back to sleep. "I remember, even as all our lives were in danger, mine, Tommy, having to stay put at Oliver's, that none of it mattered. As long as that little boy was safe." She swallowed, blinking back the tear or two that was threatening to escape. "I just want her to be safe, Bruce."

With a nod, "I'll go make some phone calls."


End file.
